EDC Celebrates Another Critical Victory Over Power Plant

March 22, 2018

“Today, the Environmental Defense Center (EDC) celebrates another critical victory in efforts to stop a fourth polluting fossil fuel power plant from moving forward along the coast of Oxnard. The California Association of Independent System Operators (“CAISO”) Board voted this afternoon to adopt a new transmission plan that eliminates the need for building NRG’s proposed 270 MW gas-fired Puente Power Plant. CAISO voted to approve the stringing of a fourth transmission line to deliver electricity to the Moorpark area that is part of multi-faceted solution to meet local area needs without developing additional fossil-fuel resources.

For more than three years, EDC, along with our clients (the Sierra Club Los Padres Chapter and Environmental Coalition of Ventura County) participated in hearings, testified, and submitted overwhelming evidence to the California Energy Commission demonstrating Puente’s impacts to coastal wildlife and wetlands were underestimated, unmitigated, and not necessary to meet local energy needs. Although the Energy Commission issued a letter last fall indicating its intent to deny Puente, the Project application is officially suspended until May 1, 2018. CAISO’s adoption of this new transmission plan leaves no room for NRG’s failed fossil fuel project.”